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Playlists
A playlist is a list of songs that you create, whether for listening for some utilitarian purpose. MusicBee offers three types of playlists: * : the user adds and removes all tracks * : dynamic, automatically update their contents based on rules * : use multiple sets of rules to create a customized, regenerating shuffle mode Playlists can be organised into folders, which can also be nested. Adding Playlists New Playlists New playlists and folders can be created in any of these ways: * File > Playlists, in the Main Menu * Right click anywhere in the Playlists Node or Playlist Manager and use the context menu ** If you clicked on a folder, the new playlist will be added to that folder. * Select tracks and use Add to Playlist > "" in the context menu When you create a playlist, you will be prompted for a name. Static playlists will be created in the format set in Library Preferences for your library playlists. Existing Playlists To add existing playlists to MusicBee: * Use File > Playlists > Import Playlists in the main menu. * Drag & drop from File Explorer to the Playlists node. You can only import static playlists. Imported playlists will be copied into your Playlists folder in your library playlists format, leaving the originals intact. Playlist Folders To create folders for organizing your playlists, use either of the first two playlist creation methods listed above. Types of Playlists Static Playlists The content of static playlists is determined entirely by the user, who must add and remove tracks manually. If tracks are dragged onto a playlist or sent to a playlist, they will appear at the end of the list. Play order is an important aspect of static playlists, and shuffling the list or sorting tracks by a certain tag will not change the Play order number (#), unless you choose to update the play order (Right-Click > List > Update Play Order), whereby the tracks will be renumbered sequentially in their position. Instead of a delete option in the Right-Click menu, tracks in a playlist offer Remove, which can also be accessed by pressing delete on the keyboard. You will be asked if you wish to remove the track from the playlist or delete the file itself. A playlist can be deleted with the option of deleting all files in it too. This gives playlists a useful "Recycle Bin"-like function, if needed. Playlists will display a default set of fields (columns), unless you specify otherwise. "Right-Click > Edit Playlist" enables you to choose to display "custom fields for this playlist only", so you can add or remove columns to customise the playlist. The dialogue box with these options also provides the option of choosing a view (Artwork, Album and Tracks or Track Detail) which will be specific to that playlist, or to display as the "Configure Layout" button (left of the search box) is set. When an option other than "default" is chosen, the view options under "Configure Layout" are frozen. Lastly, the "description" text box alters the tooltip that appears when hovering over the playlist. Auto Playlists Auto-Playlists use rules to create a list. Tracks cannot be dragged to form a new play order, and even after shuffling or sorting by tags, this order cannot be saved like static playlists can. However, auto-playlists can be saved in their present order as a static playlist, enabling preservation of a certain play order (Right-Click > List > Save as Library Playlist). Follow these steps to create a new Auto-Playlist. Position your mouse cursor in the left sidebar of MusicBee, in the section Playlists. Then press the right mouse button to open the context menu and click on 'New Auto-Playlist'. Then the following dialog box is presented to you: Naming the playlist is not possible at this point, but can be done once all of the rules are saved. The "music track source" is self explanatory, but observe that playlist folders can be selected under playlist and network shares can be used under folders. "Display using view" and "description" work identically to their function in the options for static playlists (explained above). If you tick the option for "filter out duplicates..." in the auto-playlist dialogue, the playlist chooses, by default, the best quality file of duplicates. It chooses lossless over lossy, then m4a, and if the rest are of the same format then the highest bitrate file. The option to shuffle the playlist means it will shuffle the play order every time it is played, regardless of whether you have shuffle on in the player control panel. When set to "do not shuffle", enabling shuffle in the player will override this. Rules The most important piece of an auto-playlist is the rules which define it. If no level of rule complexity is enough to remove or add certain files, you can also add and remove files manually, the same way you would add or remove files in a static playlist. If you later change your mind about files you added or removed, edit the playlist and click "Add Files" or "Remove Files" as appropriate. All you need to do is delete the line for the file you want to restore to its normal state. Here are some guides for creating specific auto-playlists: *Advanced Auto-Playlist *Best of Year Playlist Playlist Mixers Playlist Mixers produce a shuffled list of tracks, similar to Auto DJ, but allow you to use rules to constrain the randomness. They also allow you to weight the rules. New track selection criteria are added either using the + buttons or the "Add Criteria" button. The + buttons will insert criteria below the row whose + you clicked. The - button deletes that criterion. Instructions for creating rules are given above in the section on auto-playlists. Like auto-playlists, conditions can be added to refine rules. The number of tracks in each cycle of the playlist will be the total of the number in the "track count" column, so the number assigned to each row can be seen more like a proportion than an exact number (because Playlist Mixers are designed to be listened to for as many cycles as you like). In the above example, "The Beatles" will make up 1/7th of the tracks I will listen to during my experience of this Mixer. I will hear 3 times the number of classical tracks to Beatles tracks. The "gap before same artist can repeat" box doesn't apply across cycles, so you may still hear the same artist consecutively sometimes. At the end of the cycle, MB automatically generates x new tracks (where "x" is the total of the "track count" column) again. These appear in the Playing Tracks list, and can be rearranged or deleted from there. Playlist Context Menus In the Playlists node of the Navigator, each playlist has a context menu that has many functions in common with the Library Context Menu, such as Play Now, Play Shuffled, Queue Next, and Queue Last. All these function as though you had selected all the tracks in the playlist in their official Playlist Order. There are also a variety of playlist-specific commands. Opens the settings for the selected playlist. Saves the playlist as a new file of the format set for exported playlists in Library Preferences. Copies the selected playlist, including settings. The new playlist will be placed outside any folders in the Navigator, but in the Playlist Manager it will appear next to the playlist it was created from. Deletes the selected playlist, with confirmation. Lets you rename the playlist. You can also do a slow double click to rename a playlist in the Navigator, but not in the Playlist Manager. List New See above. This menu shows up in File > Playlists, in the context menu of the Playlists node, and at the top of the Playlist Manager. Category:Rule-Based Features